ITVS Projects Receive 15 News and Documentary Emmy Nominations

(San Francisco, CA, July 27, 2017) Fifteen documentaries funded by ITVS have received News and Documentary Emmy Award nominations, it was announced today. Ten nominations are for films that premiered on Independent Lens on PBS and five are for productions that aired on POV, also on PBS. Formed by Congress in 1988 to address the lack of diverse voices in public media, ITVS has served as an incubator for filmmakers and a funding engine for more than 1400 films. Recipient of the 2017 Peabody Institutional Award, ITVS was recognized by the Peabody Awards Board of Jurors for its “broad transformative impact on the media landscape.”

"We're delighted that ITVS-funded documentaries have been honored with a record 15 Emmy nominations this year," said Sally Jo Fifer, President and CEO of ITVS. “It is our continued honor to fund these compelling films, which explore some of the most vital issues of our times, and bring them free of charge to all Americans on PBS through our weekly series Independent Lens, other PBS series and our digital platforms.”

"The number of nominations received for Independent Lens films -- and the wide range of categories in which they were nominated -- is a great testament to the diversity of the stories we tell," said Lois Vossen, Independent Lens Executive Producer. " From a powerful look at the epidemic of gun violence from the point of view of two Christian activists in The Armor of Light to an exploration of the AIDS epidemic in the rural south in Wilhemina's War to In Football We Trust, about young Polynesian men striving to overcome gang violence and near poverty through the promise of football, these films take viewers to parts of our country they might never see, introducing them to people they might never meet, and sparking dialogue across the lines that often divide us."

Nominations for the 38th Annual News and Documentary Emmy® Awards were announced on July 25 by The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS). The News & Documentary Emmy Awards will be presented on Thursday, October 5, 2017, at a ceremony at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall.

ITVS is a San Francisco-based nonprofit organization that has, for over 25 years, funded and partnered with a diverse range of documentary filmmakers to produce and distribute untold stories. ITVS incubates and co-produces these award-winning films and then airs them for free on PBS via our weekly series, Independent Lens, as well as on other PBS series and through our digital platform, OVEE. ITVS is funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. For more information, visit itvs.org.

About Independent Lens

Independent Lens is an Emmy® Award-winning weekly series airing on PBS Monday nights at 10:00 PM. The acclaimed series, with Lois Vossen as executive producer, features documentaries united by the creative freedom, artistic achievement, and unflinching visions of independent filmmakers. Presented by ITVS, the series is funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people, with additional funding from PBS, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Wyncote Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. For more visit pbs.org/independentlens. Join the conversation: facebook.com/independentlens and on Twitter @IndependentLens.